Red string
by Fran KT
Summary: A sweet KumiRei Christmas story.


**A/N: Today I felt like writing a sweet Christmas KumiRei moment.**

 **Enjoy!**

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of fate

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It's been five years since Kousaka Reina and Oumae Kumiko saw each other for the last time. The euphonium player got a scholarship and was invited to an international exchange program for talented teenagers just a couple of weeks after Kitauji's concert band's national competition.

A year turned into two, and Kumiko graduated from high school abroad. Due to her hidden talent for the arts, she easily got into a prestigious university where she was able to study music composition, writing, sculpting and painting.

Now, just out of college and with several masterpieces exposed in different museums, Oumae Kumiko sat in the waiting area of gate 16. Her flight wouldn't leave in another couple of hours but this was a very important trip that she won't miss for the world.

 _Gate sixteen, huh? The same age we had the last time we saw each other…_

Kumiko saw the time in a nearby clock and couldn't help but chuckle.

 _05:15? Isn't that Reina's birthday?_

 _Kami, are you trying to tell me something?_

 _Am I doing the right thing?_

Everything started at that now distant national competition when Reina confessed her love to Taki-sensei and was rejected, as expected.

Kumiko really thought that the trumpeter had moved on and that is why she wanted to confess her love after the competition but Reina crushed her illusions and the euphonium player decided to apply for an international scholarship and, when she was selected, the euphonium player left without saying goodbye.

The news took the band by surprise. Natsuki and Asuka were the only ones to say goodbye to Kumiko. Hazuki and Midori tried to contact her several times and Kumiko's answers were so formal and distant that after trying a couple of times more, both girls suddenly stopped.

Reina didn't understand what happened and it took her a long time to accept that her only friend had left her. She skipped band practice for a week and cried until her eyes dried. The trumpeter didn't understand why her heart was hurting that much and it wasn't until next year's Agata Festival while watching the stars and playing the trumpet that Kousaka Reina realized that she was in love with Oumae Kumiko.

The trumpeter tried to talk to Kumiko's parents but they didn't give her any contact information. She even tried with Mamiko but the older girl ignored her pleads. It's like Kumiko was punishing her for confessing to their sensei.

Asuka and Natsuki were the only ones that Kumiko kept in touch with. It never occurred to Reina to ask them for the auburn haired girl, not like they'll help her either because they knew about Kumiko's feelings towards the purple eyed trumpeter and how devastated she was when she heard Reina's confession that cold day after the national competition.

Additionally, Reina's chemistry with her band members hit a critical low after the rumors of the trumpeter loving their sensei spread all over the school. Soon, whispers could be heard every time the brunette walked in the music room and her classmates gave her weird looks whenever she ran into Taki-sensei.

Due to the fact that her father accepted a position as a music professor in a recognized university in Tokyo, Reina and her family moved to that city just after the Agata Festival.

The trumpeter entered the concert band of her new school but she had a hard time with her senpais that didn't accept her that easily. Reina's band got gold in the national competition that year and her solo won a special award for her outstanding performance.

The trumpeter never stopped thinking about Kumiko while playing that same solo and since that moment on, the euphonium player became the source of inspiration of every single piece Reina played.

During her last year of high school, Kousaka Reina got into a rebellious stage due to the fact that she became famous when she won a music composition competition and her songs turned into hits. Every singer wanted her lyrics due to the raw emotions expressed through her compositions, her muse: Oumae Kumiko and her specialty: love songs.

On the evening she turned twenty, the trumpeter was invited to a museum exposition of Japanese new talents and there she saw herself playing the trumpet on a starry night. The beautiful painting was made by one of the newest artists of Japan: Oumae Kumiko.

There were two more paintings done by the same artist, the first was a self-portrait of the auburn haired girl where she showed her left pinkie tied with a red string. Just below the image was a small picture of Kumiko showing that in fact she had that tattoo done in the same place she had painted it.

The second painting was a deconstruction of a brunette girl with purple eyes and on her right pinkie; a red string was clearly visible. The trumpeter took it as a sign after analyzing every millimeter of the painting while drinking several glasses of champagne.

For Reina, there was no doubt that Kumiko was sending her a message that effectively reached her so the trumpeter complied. The next day, a horrible headache and a red string tattoo on her right pinkie were the sole witnesses of her still strong feelings for the now internationally recognized painter.

Before being released to the public, Reina sent Kumiko a song called '8:21' where she confessed that after all these years the brunette hadn't stopped loving her and included a risky proposal to see each other next Christmas in their favorite place in the whole world, Mt. Daikichi. Even the song's title had a special meaning being the painter's birthday that is why she knew that it was a message just for her.

Kumiko closed her eyes and relaxed in her seat, she had been in Tokyo for the last couple of days so she was only a couple of hours away from her destination. When her flight landed an hour and twenty minutes later, the auburn haired girl couldn't be more anxious.

After checking in a nearby hotel, Kumiko walked all the way to the top of the mountain and there she was, as beautiful as the last day she saw her and waiting for her with the warmest smile just for her.

"You got better with punctuality" Reina took off her right glove and checked her watch "exactly 8:21, I am impressed Kumiko"

"Only you would take my birthday as the title for a love song" the red string tattooed on Reina's right pinkie didn't go unnoticed by the painter who blushed while taking her left glove. Kumiko approached and entwined their tattooed pinkies before kissing them.

"I'm home, Reina" the auburn haired girl whispered.

"Welcome back, Kumiko" the trumpeter murmured before kissing her pinkies to immediately wrap her arms around the taller girl and kissed her with all the love she felt for Kumiko. Even if they took them several years, they are finally together and tied by the red string of fate.

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 **A/N: Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think in a review...**


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